Congressman Levin: What Were You Thinking? Levin Bros Split on US Aid for PA-Hamas

Against the backdrop of escalating threats to Israel’s very existence, one could only wonder if the (D) which appears after Sander Levin’s name stands for “disappointing” or “distressing” or “disgraceful.” It is mighty troubling that Sander Levin,  our only Jewish US Congressman from Michigan, would find himself siding with the likes of Representatives John Conyers and John Dingell – certainly no friends of Israel – in signing a letter supporting US aid to the Palestinian Authority in a unity government with Hamas. 

Hamas, our Jewish Congressman representing Jewish communities surely knows, is a terrorist organization whose stated mission is the murder of Jews and destruction of Israel.  Hamas, lest we forget, also condemned the United States for killing Osama Bin Laden, glorified by Hamas as a “holy warrior.”

The US has been pumping billions of dollars of aid to the PA over the years, with more than $500 million directed to the PA last  year alone.  The wisdom of that notwithstanding, there is no question now that American tax dollars cannot be appropriated to support for a Hamas-PA partnership government.  Our message should be unequivocal:  if the PA doesn’t reject Hamas, we no longer bankroll them. 

We must raise our voices in deafening roar to stop international legitimization of the Islamic Resistance Movement, a murderous terror group responsible for the death and injury of innocent Americans as well as the targeting of Jews and subjugation and persecution of Christians. Think about it.  The world is demonizing and delegitimizing Israel, an outpost of democracy in a roiling sea of tyranny, while it is looking to legitimize a terror organization and welcome it into the world of nations.  

Funding a PA-Hamas coalition is an obscene repudiation of everything America represents and would set the stage for the inexorable delisting of Hamas as a terror organization. The existential danger to Israel is palpable; few stop to realize however the threat an emboldened, internationally recognized Hamas would present to us here in America, where the Holy Land Foundation terror financing trial demonstrated operates an extensive Hamas-support network.

And given the declaration last week by a senior Palestinian legislator and member of Abbas’ ruling Fatah party, the consummation of the Hamas-PA union is sure to imperil Israel. 

“No one in Fatah and Hamas movements recognizes Israel,” the official said. He added, “Palestinians who are a nation under occupation have and will resist against the occupiers and we witness Palestinian resistance and conflicts with the Zionist regime in most regions.”

But that didn’t stop the toxically anti-Israel J Street from vigorously lobbying Congress to support the letter to the President urging continued aid to a PA-Hamas unit government.  The letter is signed by nearly 60 percent of the Democratic caucus and also includes the endorsements of Rep. Hansen Clarke, the Detroit freshman, and longtime Flint Congressman Dale Kildee.  Kudos to Rep. Gary Peters,  the lone Democratic Michigan Congressman, who DID NOT sign onto the letter backed by the Soros- and Arab-funded J Street whose anti-Israel initiatives have been widely reported and criticized by the likes of Rabbi Eric Yoffie , head of the Reform Movement, Kadima party member Otniel Schneller and Israeli Deputy Knesset Speaker Danny Danon who described J Street as a pro-Palelstinian organization.

Even liberal Congressman Gary Ackerman (D-NY) recently cut ties with J Street, saying,

“I’ve come to the conclusion that J-Street is not an organization with which I wish to be associated,” an organization he characterized as “so open-minded about what constitutes support for Israel that its brains have fallen out.”

Why then would Sander Levin, a perennial favorite among Michigan Jewish voters, sign on to a letter that not only endangers Israel, but as a result of empowering Hamas, all Jews targeted by Hamas’ genocidal charter? The ZOA notes that “J Street has funded some of Israel’s harshest Congressional critics” and “also been found to have been significantly funded by pro-Saudi activists, Arab-American leaders, Muslim activists and State Department anti-Israel Arabists,” well known to have deep pockets when it comes to political giving.

Levin’s signature on the J-Street letter is all the more puzzling given that it stands in polar opposition to brother Carl Levin’s signature on a letter of 29 US Democratic Senators  to the President objecting to US aid for a PA-Hamas collaboration.  The letter, also signed by Michigan’s other US Senator Debbie Stabenow, notes that American law precludes aid to Hamas.  

"It is imperative for you to make clear to [Palestinian Authority] President [Mahmoud] Abbas that Palestinian Authority participation in a unity government with an unreformed Hamas will jeopardize its relationship with the United States, including its receipt of U.S. aid,"  states the letter initiated by Robert Menendez of New Jersey and Pennsylvania’s Bob Casey.

"Hamas and other Iranian-backed terrorist groups in Gaza have also stepped up their smuggling of Iranian arms and increased their mortar and rocket attacks against Israeli civilians, firing more than 130 during the past month alone and nearly 300 this year. Hamas’ response to the killing of Osama Bin Laden, condemning “the assassination and killing of an Arab holy warrior” is emblematic of Hamas’ ideology and underscores Hamas’ continued support for terrorism. The United States should stand by its refusal to work with any Palestinian government that includes Hamas …"

Republicans have also weighed in to challenge funding to a PA-Hamas unity government. Senator Mark Kirk (R-IL) issued a memo on April 29 outlining that the legal implications of the Fatah/Hamas unity government meant that no U.S. funds may be provided for salaries for personnel of the PA located in Gaza, or to Hamas or entity it controls, nor may funding go to any government of which Hamas is a member unless the President certifies they have publicly accepted and complied with core requirements of the Palestinian Anti-Terrorism Act of 2006

The House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairwoman, Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL) has called attention to a 2006 law, P.L. No: 109-446, ‘Palestinian Anti-Terrorism Act,’ that conditions U.S. aid on a “requirement that Palestinian recipients must renounce violence and acknowledge Israel's right to exist” conditions which Hamas openly repudiates. Rep. Ros-Lehtinen said, “No taxpayer funds should go, they must not go, to the new Palestinian unity government.

Given the reassessment now going on inside the Beltway regarding US aid to Pakistan in the wake of concerns about alleged Pakistani complicity in harboring Bin Laden,  it is shocking that the US would knowingly funnel money to a Palestinian government headed in part by Hamas, a Foreign Terrorist Organization. The ZOA’s Mort Klein makes it clear:

"That the PA now has formally joined forces with Hamas, which calls in its Charter for the destruction of Israel and the murder of Jews, should automatically render it ineligible and illegal for any form of U.S. aid or diplomatic support.”

However, as has been noted by several pundits, including Sarah Stern of EMET (Endowment for Middle East Truth): “It appears however that the Administration intends to buck congressional pressure and proceed with business as usual…

According to a report by Israel National News,  Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and eight other Democratic lawmakers traveled to Israel last week and met with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, “who told the delegation that the United States should shun the Fatah-Hamas government.Pelosi was non-committal.”

Exhorts Stern:  As Jews, supporters of Israel, Americans and clear-thinking citizens who abhor terrorism in all its guises, we must insist that the United States and the United Nations refuse to recognize any government that includes Hamas.

 "The Hamas-Fatah unity agreement must be understood as a line crossed in the sand. The time has come to end funding for the duplicitous Palestinian Authority, which has repeatedly ignored U.S. concerns, preferring terrorists to American aid."

Here are immediate action items you can take to help halt this madness:

1.   Call the US Capitol Switchboard at 202-224-3121 and ask to be connected to any and all US Representatives and US Senators you have the time to call. Make it a priority to call the offices of Rep. Gary Peters and Senators Carl Levin and Debbie Stabenow to thank them for speaking out against US aid to PA-Hamas. And make sure to call Rep. Sander Levin to let him know how despicable it was for him to sign the letter encouraging US funding of the PA-Hamas terror steamroller. Please weigh in with our Republican lawmakers (Miller, McCotter, Rogers, Wahlberg, Huizenga, Amash, Benishek, Upton, Camp)

2.  Call the White House at 202-456-1414 and let them know the hypocrisy of its double standards. We hunt down and kill Osama Bin Laden and have committed our nation's blood and treasure to take out Al Qaeda, but we fund terrorists dedicated to Jew-killing. 

3.   Sign this Petition to Reject Terrorists in “Unity Government.”  You can also print it out and use it as the basis for an email to lawmakers.

--posted by MT Beadle